Flaming Sun Collection 1: Happily Ever Afters from India Box Set (The Malhotra Bride; Meghna; The Runaway Bridegroom)

by Sundari Venkatraman

  What did he want to tell her? It was obviously nothing bad. He wouldn’t be eating his food with such gusto if he was going to blow his top about her work. A small frown puckered Chanda’s forehead as she waited for Ranveer to finish his lunch.

  Ten

  Ranveer finished eating and asked, “Have you had enough?” pointing at Chanda’s packet of buttermilk.

  Chanda looked startled before seeing where he was pointing. She nodded on understanding and said, “Yeah.”

  She watched in surprise when Ranveer picked up the pack and drank the buttermilk at one go. Ranveer wiped his mouth and hands with a tissue, sipped on some water and sat back in his chair. It was obvious that he was finally ready to say whatever he had been planning to.

  “So, how do you like it here at work?” asked Ranveer.

  Chanda’s face lit up. “Oh, I just love it. Everything is so interesting and there’s so much to learn. And Parth—”

  She didn’t notice Ranveer’s face darken when she mentioned Parth’s name. He said, “And Parth; how do you like interacting with him?” Ranveer decided that he was being too pointed and said, “I mean how do you all like working under his guidance?”

  Chanda grinned. “It’s such fun. I think working in an office is way more fun than studying, actually.” She wrinkled her nose, fascinating the man in front of her. “I, for one, enjoy life with no home work to do.”

  Ranveer’s face relaxed into a smile as he could quite relate to her attitude. “There’s to be a party at the office tomorrow evening, being a Friday and all that. We’ve one every month or two,” he said, thinking on his feet. “All the staff are invited and I’m keen that you four should also join in.” He realised there was no way he could ask more about Parth and not sound strange.

  Chanda liked the idea of partying. She hadn’t been to that many. She wondered whether there will be hard drinks but felt too shy to ask such a question. “Will it finish late?” she asked.

  “Well,” Ranveer rubbed his jaw, a soft rasp sounding as a five o’clock shadow had already showed up. “Our parties tend to go on till quite late, probably till early morning. Why? Is there a problem?” he asked.

  “We’ve to be back at the hostel by ten latest,” said Chanda, wondering how to manage that. She didn’t want to miss the party at any cost.

  “Let’s see, I’m sure something can be worked out,” said Ranveer, before pushing the chair back, signalling that the meeting was over. Chanda got up, quite excited at the prospect of a party and a chance to get to know her handsome boss more. Her face glowed as she smiled at Ranveer.

  He nodded before placing a hand at her elbow, guiding her to the elevator. Chanda was shocked to feel an electric current shoot up her right arm when Ranveer touched her. She just about managed not to pull her arm away as she thought that might seem rude. Neither of them talked as the lift took them down to their office.

  SHIKHA LOOKED UP IN TIME TO SEE Ranveer walk in with that new chick. A small frown puckered her forehead. Where had they been? She looked hard at the woman and recalled that her name was Chanda.

  Why were Ranveer and Chanda together? She decided then and there to be more watchful of the young college girl. She wondered what Ranveer saw in her.

  Shikha turned towards her computer. In a couple of minutes, there was an internal office mail from Abhimanyu. Ranveer’s assistant had announced that there was to be a party tomorrow evening beginning 6 pm.

  Shikha’s frown deepened on seeing the mail. While she had been working here for barely three weeks, she had heard a lot about the office parties. They ran quite wild, it seemed. Why now? Did that have anything to do with Ranveer being with Chanda? Shikha’s mind ran fast. She needed to be careful if she didn’t want Ranveer taken away from right under her nose. Shikha decided to catch the bull by its horns and walked into her boss’s cabin.

  Ranveer was busy on his laptop as usual and didn’t notice Shikha walk in. “Ranveer,” she called to get his attention.

  His scowl was quite heavy when Ranveer looked up. He just couldn’t stomach Shikha walking into his cabin whenever she pleased. Couldn’t he have some privacy? He decided that he needed to do something about it soon. He had quite forgotten that he had gone out with his secretary to a wedding and had had vague plans of using her to escape thoughts of Chanda.

  Ranveer continued to scowl up at Shikha, waiting for her to say something. ‘And it had better be something really important,’ he thought.

  “Ranveer, about the party; I’ve a great theme that we can use, you know. Everyone’ll have so much fun.” Shikha went on to describe what they could all do, not aware that she had lost Ranveer’s attention completely.

  Ranveer couldn’t care less what theme was used. All he wanted was to spend some time talking to Chanda. He couldn’t bloody understand how he could get some privacy and talk to her away from prying eyes. It was too early to ask her on a date. And he had to keep reminding himself that he was her boss while she was a young college student. And that’s the reason why he had come up with the idea for a party. Luckily for him, holding a party for the staff happened fairly often at the software company for it to appear strange when he suggested it.

  He looked up finally when he heard the silence. Shikha had stopped talking. “Tell you what? Abhi is the guy in charge of all this. Why don’t you talk to him?” he said, much to Shikha’s annoyance.

  Shikha couldn’t stand that old man. What she refused to admit to herself was that Abhimanyu was thirty-two and just a year older than her. He was way older than Ranveer and that made him an old man, she decided. And she was not at all keen on organising the party along with him.

  When Ranveer saw that she was going to say something, he raised his hand to stop her before saying, “I’d like to be left alone, Shikha. If you’ve any suggestions, you’re welcome to share them with Abhimanyu. Or you don’t have to.” He turned back to his computer, his body language clear that he wanted her out of his cabin.

  Not left with a choice, Shikha walked out of his office, her shoulders rigid with anger. She decided then and there that Ranveer’s party could happen or not for all she cared.

  Eleven

  Chanda was all jittery the next morning. It looked like she won’t be able to attend the party she had been so keen on. And Ranveer had talked to her about it personally too. ‘Tch’.

  But what to do! Megha had made plans to stay at her aunt’s home. It could barely accommodate her, let alone Chanda. The boys would of course bunk with other bachelors at the office. Chanda was not familiar enough with any of the girls to spend the night with one of them. Not that anyone had invited her to. She couldn’t imagine herself bumming in and making a request. That left her with no place to go but back to the hostel.

  Chanda was quite disappointed. She had been so keen on remaining for the party the whole time. Now, she will probably have to leave at 9 pm at the latest to get back to the hostel. Considering the lack of safety, it would need to be way before that, she was sure. Chanda went to work with a heavy heart, not saying anything to her college friends on the way to the office.

  It must have been a couple of hours into the work day when the LAN chat popped up. ‘All set for the evening?’ Ranveer had added a smiley face to the words.

  Chanda wondered what to tell him. She couldn’t lie. It was not in her. ‘Well, kind of,’ she replied vaguely.

  ‘Meaning?’ came the fast question on the screen.

  ‘Hmm—can I meet you?’ Chanda gathered the courage to ask.

  Ranveer invited her to go into his cabin. He was glad that no one could hear them talk in there.

  Chanda got up, straightened her short coral coloured dress, tucked her feet into the matching high heeled pumps and walked over to the other end of the office. She knew where Ranveer’s cabin was as all girls in the office talked about him no end.

  She walked up to the glass door and knocked gently. Ranveer looked up to see a delicious sight that promised to make any man drool. He h
ad always thought that Chanda looked good. That lovely dress with a tight-fitting bodice, a gentle flare waist down and ending a few inches above her knees, made her look gorgeous. The matching shoes added a few inches to her height. Ranveer blinked once to bring himself back down to earth before nodding his head to her to come in.

  Chanda walked into the cabin, wiping her suddenly damp palms down the sides of her dress. Why did she feel that she had just walked into a lion’s den?

  Ranveer invited her to sit on one of the chairs in front of him. Chanda obliged, whispering a “thank you”.

  “So, what’s up? Are you there for the party or not?” he asked, his voice sounding rough. She looked even better closer up. He couldn’t take his eyes off the tiny cleavage that showed. Her golden skin shone against the coral colour of her dress.

  Chanda looked at her boss hesitantly. It took her a couple of moments to realise that there was no way to put it but to tell him straight. “Ranveer, I need to get back to the hostel tonight. I’ll hang around till about 8 o’clock, but—”

  Ranveer put his hand up to stop her flow of words. ‘Was she doing him a bloody favour?’ His quicksilver temper rose to the fore. He worked hard at controlling it before saying, “But I thought I told you very clearly that things can be taken care of. Everyone else is attending. The other girl from your college - Megha - she’s also going to stay back. Why can’t you?” His voice went softer in direct contrast to his rising temper.

  Chanda looked at Ranveer. There was a flush of colour on his tanned cheeks. And his brown eyes glittered with temper. She could see that he was angry. But then he couldn’t blame her for the situation.

  She said, “Megha’s staying with her aunt. Their apartment’s so small that she’s just managing to squeeze. I don’t know anyone else in the office and don’t want to stay with strangers. Nor do I know anyone else in Delhi other than those at the hostel.” There was no apology in Chanda’s voice as she was very clear that she couldn’t do much about the way things were.

  Ranveer considered the situation for a minute before coming to a quick decision. After all, speedy decision-making was the foremost trait that had brought his business this far, so fast.

  “Okay, you can go home with me,” he said, his voice firm, making it clear that he wouldn’t put up with arguments.

  Chanda’s jaw dropped! Go to his house? She looked at Ranveer strangely. A number of questions rose within her. What will his parents think? Or the other members of his family? Coming from a big family with everyone living in, it didn’t even strike her that Ranveer could be living alone.

  Chanda mentally shrugged her shoulders. If he thought it was alright taking a strange woman home, then why should she worry her head about it? Ranveer seemed too decent to misbehave and that way she could trust her instincts around him. She concluded that this was probably the only way that she could attend the party and she was keen about it.

  Chanda nodded her head much to Ranveer’s amazement. He had been expecting a number of questions and at least a few protests. He couldn’t believe his luck that she had agreed to his suggestion almost immediately. Despite her estranged marriage, Chanda’s close-knit family had helped her keep her faith in humankind and she tended to trust easily.

  And so it was decided that Chanda would go with Ranveer after the party. He gave a soft grin, his temper having disappeared as he sent her on her way to her desk.

  The scene left a bitter taste in Shikha’s mouth as she watched Ranveer get up to open his cabin door to send Chanda on her way. She could see his wide smile all the way from her cabin.

  What the hell was happening?

  Twelve

  The party was loud and cheerful. Chanda couldn’t remember the last time she had enjoyed herself so much. Everyone was friendly and she realised that having a couple of drinks not necessarily meant getting drunk.

  The venue had been chosen well. It was the big hall where everyone got together when there was a common meeting. All the chairs had been pushed against the walls while the few tables that had been placed together groaned under the weight of food and drinks. There were soft drinks, sodas, fruit juices, beer and hard liquor. A professional bartender had been roped in to do the honours. A couple of chefs had been hired to handle the food for the fifty-odd staff. There was a variety of snacks - nachos piled with cheese; thread paneer; garlic bread; potato wedges; cheese toast; chicken wings; fish and chips. Everything was hot and simply delicious.

  There was loud music with a mix of Bollywood and pop numbers. The centre of the hall was kept free of furniture to accommodate the dancers. There were coloured streamers and balloons adding to the festive air. It was obvious that someone had gone all out to make the party a great success.

  Shikha sat in a chair all by herself, her lips drooping in dissatisfaction. She couldn’t find anything right. The drinks were too soft, the food too bland and the décor - oh, so childish! Her cynical mind just couldn’t accept that everyone was having fun. Nor could she forget Ranveer’s expression when Chanda was leaving his cabin. What had she been doing there? The question ate into Shikha.

  It was barely a couple of hours since the party began and Shikha was already into her sixth whisky. The bartender looked askance as she went up to him yet again for a refill. She was not interested in eating anything. Her eyes were following the movements of both Ranveer and Chanda. And she was quite surprised to note that neither seemed inclined to be with the other.

  Chanda was with her friends from college while a few others from the office hung around with them. They were all very young, thought Shikha, with a scowl on her face. They were going easy on the drinks and eating well into the snacks. She wondered what they had to laugh so much about as yet another peal of mirth sounded from that end of the room.

  The group then moved to the dance floor and began to swing to the music. They didn’t follow any particular step as they all swung in rhythm. More people joined in and soon it appeared as if everyone was dancing. Shikha watched in anger as Ranveer went to join the dancers.

  Shikha and Abhimanyu were the only ones left. She refused to join the others as she felt they all were too immature for words. She couldn’t stand the young crowd.

  RANVEER DANCED HIS WAY slowly towards Chanda. He had been watching her surreptitiously all evening and couldn’t help but like what he saw. She looked lovely and her laughter seemed to ring the loudest. He was glad that he had had the party organised. More than anything, he was looking forward to taking her home tonight.

  Chanda smiled up at Ranveer when he moved to dance in front of her. It wasn’t easy when her heart picked up at double speed at his appearance. But then, she was very careful as she kept a tight rein on her heaving emotions. She raised her hand to bring her thumb and forefinger together in a gesture of appreciation. Ranveer nodded his head in understanding with an answering smile on his face. Conversation was impossible above the din.

  They danced for a while before Ranveer gently pulled her to the side. He took her along with him to the food table. They both picked a plate each and added a few tit-bits before walking over to a corner of the room in mutual agreement.

  Chanda gave him a nervous smile before saying, “Lovely party. I’ve never had so much fun.”

  Ranveer grinned his appreciation before drinking from his bottle of beer. “So, what’s your poison?” he asked, noticing that Chanda was not having anything to drink.

  “Water,” she answered promptly. She had already had a couple of vodka-based cocktails and was definitely not going to have any more.

  Ranveer left his plate on the chair beside her before going to get a glass of water.

  Shikha had been watching them like a hawk and walked over the moment Ranveer moved away. She sat next to Chanda and gave her a saccharine smile. “Hello! I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Shikha, Ranveer’s secretary.” Her tone clearly suggested ‘lover’ instead of secretary. But Chanda was not tuned in to the nuances and took her at her word.

  �
�Hi,” she smiled innocently. “I’m Chanda. You must love your job surely. This is such a fun place to work at.”

  Shikha nodded superciliously, wondering how to make it clear to Chanda that Ranveer was her property. “It’s such a boring party”, she declared cynically. “In my earlier job, the parties used to be so much wilder. This is so kiddish,” she insisted to a startled Chanda. There had been no parties at her earlier job. But no one knew about that. Shikha wanted to make it clear that she was ‘cool’.

  Before she could utter another word, Ranveer turned up with a glass of water for Chanda. He handed it over to her while Shikha looked hungrily at his face. He looked at her coolly before saying, “Hey, Shikha, how do you like the party? It’s your first too, isn’t it?”

  Shikha could have killed him for that. Why did he have to let on that she was quite new here? Men were such idiots.

  She tilted her head to one side to give him a flirtatious look. “Ranveer,” she drawled. “I’ve never enjoyed myself more in my life. The conversations are so witty, the drinks flowing so freely and the snacks so yummy—mmm.” Shikha brought all the fingers of her right hand to her lips and blew him a kiss.

  Chanda’s jaw dropped!

  Thirteen

  Chanda couldn’t believe her ears. Barely a couple of minutes ago, this same woman had declared that the party was boring. And just now, she was telling their boss that it was the best party in the world. Talk about being a phony! She turned around to look at Shikha who was staring at Ranveer. Chanda caught the hungry expression on the older woman’s face and was quite shaken by it.

  Ranveer smiled down at his secretary. The quiet Chanda also noted that his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. There was obviously more to the situation than met the eye, she thought. She stood back to watch the two sophisticated people beside her.

  As Ranveer held his plate of snacks, Shikha moved closer to him in the pretext of choosing a tit-bit. Her body language screamed ownership. Chanda wondered whether anything was on between the two of them and felt a sense of disappointment steal over her. It appeared as if her interest in a man for the first time was not to be. She kind of withdrew from the other two.